Preperformance Routine in Sports

Pre-performance routines are the actions which sports professionals use to prepare for a game. These routines can be of many types for instance to be used for warm up and before the start of games. They can be mental and physical exercises like visualizations, dribbling and preshot routines by golfers. They help athletes prepare for a game in a useful way. They are helpful in the execution of a motor skill. The preparatory behaviors are excellent methods to help focus on one shot, pitch or any other sports related activity. They are extremely useful tools to refocus attention (Boutcher, 1997).

A preperformance routine is a merger of mental and physical steps that combine into one long behavior. It can include physical actions, specific thoughts and mental images. All high level athletes use these routines at basketball, baseball or football games. Football kickers use systematic routines before attempting to make goals. Research has noted the effectiveness of preperformance routines. It can help to reduce anxiety and create confidence. It is also helpful in enhancing concentration and improving performance. Many athletes have reached their ideal performance state by closely developing and concentrating using specific preperformance routines.

Preperformance routines are widely used by athletes who perform in various sports. They help to mentally and physically prepare athletes in concentrating and shrugging of negative reactions. For instance free throw shooting is a kind of pre performance routine which is used by basketball players. Athletes belonging to various sports have developed many kinds of preperformance routines.

Preperformance routines are a way of activating the mental state of athletes. They ensure that athletes have enhanced performance. These routines allow athletes to focus their thoughts on a series of signals. This reduces the chance of athletes focusing on negative thoughts or physically performing actions. Research has shown that basketball players during free throw shooting are accurately performing the shot. Preperformance routines have been shown to be helpful in developing concentration and discipline amongst the free throw shooters.

Preperformance routines have a considerable influence on sport success and systematic mental skills training (MST) programs have been shown to have the potential to enhance the athletic performance of athletes of various ages and from different sports. The effectiveness of individual or combined preperformance routines for enhancing competitive cognitions, emotions, and performance has generally been supported in the applied sport psychology literature. However, there is no consensus as to the best way to implement programs and there is considerable variability in the approaches taken by sport psychology consultants. Some studies have examined the relationship between cognitive-behavioral mental training programs and sport performance and most of these have shown that systematic mental training has a positive influence on performance (Burke, 2003).

Performance outcomes have been compared where athletes that follow a preperformance routine to situations were affected by following and deviating from a specific routine during the game. Athletes who maintain a preperformance routine have a higher free throw percentage than those athletes who do not have a pre performance routine.

Research has shown that basketball players that maintain a preshot routine perform with greater accuracy as compared with those who did not maintain a routine. According to the research the accuracy can be explained using pre-current operant theory. Current operant reinforces while a pre current operant indirectly changes the situation by subsequent operants. A preperformance routine may be considered as a pre-current operant. It can alter the probability that the current operant response will be effective for producing reinforcement. These patterns limit the range of possible actions performed in the actual shot (Cohn, 1990).

A study was conducted which utilized relaxation and imagery while another utilized relaxation and imagery but also viewed a videotaped model. The results revealed that after 10 sessions, the group given the model in addition to relaxation and imagery had a greater improvement in free-throw shooting accuracy than the group that utilized relaxation and imagery alone. The group that viewed the model improved their free-throw shooting percentage from 72% to 81% while the group that did not view the model remained at their pre-intervention percentage of 70%. Therefore, the introduction of a videotaped model appeared to be the intervention that produced improvements in free-throw shooting percentage for the team of female collegiate basketball players.

In another study, a goal setting training program was implemented in which 30 Division I collegiate swimmers were taught to set performance goals. Burton then compared the goals, perceived ability, competitive cognitions, and performance of this group to those of another Division I team of 35 swimmers not receiving goal setting training. Overall, swimmers on the team that received goal setting training set more accurate performance goals than swimmers on the team that did not receive goal setting training. Female swimmers on the goal setting training team set more accurate goals during the late season than did their male counterparts. The swimmers on the goal setting training team placed greater importance on performance-related achievements while those on the control team placed more emphasis on outcome achievements. Therefore, goal setting training seemed to lead to an increased focus on personal achievement and the process of improved performance rather than on the outcome of competition.

Such areas as concept about self, personal relationships in connection with sports, physical performance are being frequently addressed by physical trainers so that better performance appraisal can be met. They have the athletes visualize and rehearse as methods in order to improve their performance. All this is centered on the issue of making the athletes perform to the best possible degree. Confidence is the key element that has great value being in the mental mechanism of the athlete. If an athlete has confidence in him or herself that athlete will give performance in the same manner. It is performance routines that can cause an inclination to motivation and takes an athlete to perform better and improve character (Gayton, 1999).

A general hypothesis can be made that the more favorable a concept a person has of themselves, the more successful that person will be in terms of obtaining their ultimate athletic performance. The better one feels about one's self, the better one will be. This is true in the non-athletic field as well. Individuals who are clearer in their goals and aspirations and who take charge of their own destinies in life are more likely to succeed than those who are not and do not. Individuals who make things happen are in charge of those things.

The method of visualization may be employed as a routine in performance appraisal. An athlete can bring into action a number of techniques and strategies to work out critical decision-making when he or she comes across a critical situation. By the method of visualization, an athlete can be prepared to break away from narrow mind set into a broader approach to creative and viable problem solving attitude which is at least imaginable. This very technique gives birth to a number of creative ideas and can bring wonderful performance results. However, it is important to consider a good many solutions so to try the best solution in a situation. Hence, a number of different strategies are used in this very area. To effectively improve sports performance, it needs a properly maintained mind: the one which takes challenges and problems as ways to perform better than playing the blame game, and to practice a problem solving attitude. Unless and until challenged, problems in sports may not be solvable. As such by the visualization method, this goal can be effectively met (Kirschenbaum, 2000).

Research has shown the importance of mental training for athletes to achieve peak performance. Trainers have used various principles to enhance the performance of athletes. Mental and psychological factors are crucial for the success of athletes in achieving peak performance. Mental training programs use preperformance routines to train athletes by teaching them motivational, cognitive and behavioral principles. These programs enhance the self confidence of athletes and allow them to survive difficult situations in sports. There is a direction relation between performance and self confidence. Further mental training programs also create self discipline and concentration amongst athletes which help them to increase their performance. Preperformance routines are part of mental training skills.

Self confidence is defined as how a person can correctly motivate himself using his thoughts, actions and feelings. If properly channeled and used it can lead to peak performance. During sports an athlete who has increased self confidence will show a great increase in performance. He will try to excel with confidence. Preperformance routines can be helpful in imparting self confidence amongst athletes. Self confidence allows the athlete to properly prepare himself mentally and physically before going to play. Trust and belief in him are the vital components of self confidence amongst athletes. Mental training programs use a number of techniques to build up self confidence for athletes. Athletes must first of all recognize their strengths and weaknesses. After evaluating these factors, they must analyze what the challenges are. They can use their strengths to overwhelm or counter their limitations. The knowledge of past successes can be used to reinforce self confidence. This will help them in positively thinking about their performance rather than about negative feelings or the outcome of the game. Self confidence directly contributes to positive feelings which are helpful in enhancing the performance of athletes (Lidor, 2000).

Theoretically it is easy to speak about the virtues of self confidence. However building self confidence is a difficult and cumbersome task. It requires concentration and mental skills. A single negative experience can destroy an athlete. However these negative thoughts can be countered by filtering them and transforming them into positive way. Athletes however gradually build their self confidence after going through bad experiences.

They should try to focus on the reasons why they have not performed well. Constant practice would enable to the athlete to desensitize the failure and learn from the mistakes. Therefore subsequently they will perform much better. Filtering is a kind of preperformance routine which can allow negative thoughts to be seen in a positive way. Self talk is another way of gaining self confidence. This is a skill which greatly helps athletes. By self talking the athlete must learn to conquer his most inner fears and demons. The importance of self talk has been given serious thought by sports professionals. It involves past successes and objectives. Athletes look whether they have accomplished their goals and objectives. They also see how successful they have been and what their limitations have been. It also involves hard work and team work. It includes the talents, endurance and determination of their struggle to achieve their dreams and aspirations. It involves conquering their inner demons. Self talk can also be the time when the athlete reviews the positive comments he has received. Thinking about positive comments from others definitely enhances the morale of the athlete and gives them a sense of satisfaction.

Visual imagery is a beneficial form of preperformance routine. If done properly it can give positive results. It can help in developing the confidence of the athlete. Confidence helps the athlete to overcome the challenges which they face. It helps to build self esteem and allows them to survive negative situations. It also allows self discipline which can further help in reinforcing positive feelings. Confidence can help increase the performance of the athlete (Lobmeyer, 2006).

The pre-performance techniques discussed above are done on an individual level. There are external techniques like self confidence skills, team cohesion and constructive criticism which can help athletes. The spirit of working as a team can help develop the performance of each individual athlete. It can prevent conflicts and foster cooperation. Positive criticism allows the highlighting of flaws and limitations without hurting the person. It also can help create positive feelings amongst the team.

Now it is an important area of investigation among researchers as to find out the winning performance inventory in order to work out a winning profile. The attempt in the domain of psychology, the tries to arrive at “ideal athletic personality” there has not been high success. However, one of the areas leading us to this ideal athlete is the Psychological Skills Training (PST). Here the point is raised as that mental training to both coaches and athletes is important for better performance as such this training is said to be effective in this regard (McCann, 2001).

To help performers build up their psychological skills, a number of programs have been offered. Numerous investigators are of the opinion that Psychological Training Programs have served for an effective improvement in athletes’ performance. These PST segments bring together a number of techniques (that is, imagination, relaxing, setting up goal) along with training the athlete physically so that better performance combinations can be obtained. Investigators have attempted to weigh the PST programs to evaluate their efficiency while observing the process to improve the performance. These attempts reached a positive conclusion about the PST programs as such.

The first phase of the model “Orientation” zooms on to the function, aim, and degree of adherence on the part of the athlete. For instance, it tells of the requirement of help from the athlete as well the intensity of the help. In sports groups the differences in this very phase of improvement process would be fewer. There will be difference of commitment to the cause among elite athletes, the non-elite athletes and those just beginning in this area. The athletes who were top performers in Olympics showed highest degree of commitment to achieve excellence which was found with such intensity with among those who did not perform as successfully as these top performers.

The second phase here “Sport Analysis” takes into consideration a deep investigation of sports activities in the areas of psychological, biomechanical, and physiological requirements of the actions undertaken by athletes. The on going fields where athletes perform have been observed and investigated to grip what processes take place in reality. Those individual athletes who performed in an observed setting had high scores on the anxiety measurement scale; however they scored less on the subscales of concentration and confidence. None the less, the athletes in a closed field did well also on the motivation levels and made use of mental readying techniques in a greater degree than those who performed in an open field. Investigation has informed that there is much importance of the performance field as well as of the processes needed to develop such performance in different fields. Such differences need to be pointed out in the process of athletes’ training and development. Research also informs that past experience can be helpful for effective mental exercise in this regard but only when such an assignment is carried out. Those who had past experience had the benefit without any respect of the nature of an assignment. Yet, beginners had greater advantage when they visualized mental tasks rather than the physical tasks (Moore, 1996).

The third phase, i.e., “Individual/Team Assessment” acquires and evaluates the athlete's present psychological condition and boundaries and it also measures hindrances. The examination which is employed is supposed to be the one which an athlete and coach or consultant are contented practicing with. When evaluating elite against pre-elite athletes, research came across the fact that elite athletes had fewer problems with anxiety; they gave way to better attentiveness skills; they had high degree of self confidence; and the depended more on intrinsically related kinesthetic psychological homework. Additionally, they were more centered on their personal presentations than that of by their team. They were generally extremely aggravated to perform better in sport. Trainers and Sport Psychologists consequently would want to offer the pre-elite performers the information and experience to these psychosomatic techniques so that the latter would show a more influential performance and add to their likelihood of high achievement. Elite athletes’ characteristics can be outlined as: they are mentally-relaxed performers, have physically-relaxed attitude, are confident, are focused for the very present, have greater energy level, they occupy above average awareness, can control better. Novices should seek and aspire to increase these features by cerebral skills training.

The fourth phase is “Conceptualization”; it is where the advisor construes the consequences from the third phase and deems it comparative to the fifth phase. The trainer must decide as to which abilities and qualities are most wanted depending on the knowledge supplied and what the most excellent methods can be to additionally expand those skills and qualities (Orlick, 1996).

The fifth phase “Psychological Skills Training”, displays the skill-set and qualities which the contestant or teams may desire to get better. A separation is worked out in this phase between skills or qualities (that is, self consciousness, stimulation control, management) and the methods necessary to attain them (that is, images, bodily recreation, goal location). As soon as ability has been recognized to develop a method, it is necessarily to be coordinated to work out the procedure. Influential performers have better advantage in connection with presentation improvement in this phase from prior knowledge and better information stand. Research has displayed that knowledge can influence use of visualization and established that more qualified performers are possibly to contain more winning visual images owing to having a better amount of information to extract more sensible images from.

Additional investigation on imagery establishes that best performers profit higher from the use of visualization than non-influential performers. This might be owing to the fact that influential athletes have a better perceptive inclination of the strains and methods of the sport, as such this permits them to well use visualization into performance. Nevertheless, the non-influential performers’ performance did get better but did not meet as improved a level as that of the privileged performers. Performance improvement while replication is expected to be maximum for cream of the crop performers because they contain superior kinesthetic acquaintance of the actions to be carried out. Relaxing procedures exemplify dissimilarity involving elite and non-elite performers. Best performers contain the aptitude to manage nervousness to convenient magnitude, and even employ it to their benefit (Schmid, 1998).

One of the personality traits of top presentation is that of keeping an state of feeling comfortable. Exploration gives evidence to a decrease in condition of nervousness as a consequence of feeling relaxed methods with best performers improved at carrying out these recreation methods. The methods of setting goal also encompass presentation enrichment remunerations in a range of sports such as athletics, golf, basketball, and swimming, though dissimilar sorts of objectives are additionally effectual in the performance improvement procedure than those of others. Moreover, this is the condition for best athlete and novices. Best athletes should be confident to put result, recital and procedure leaning objectives.

Self-talking is one more effectual psychological technique. Even though not shored up by sport psychology-specialists, it might be victorious for both best performers and novices, particularly the privileged. They are supposed to be cautioned in the exercise of optimistic self-talk and the psychological reformation methods.

The sixth phase in this connection “implementation” is where the trainer puts into practice their involvement meant at assisting the sportsperson or players. Increasing a before-performance schedule, by means of psychological application previous to presentation, and supervising development to improve self-efficacy are instance of the very procedure. Closed surroundings games might endeavor to duplicate to extent which is best likely the actions in which they would be doing in their game. Open surroundings games will endeavor to reproduce the identical before-presentation schedule, though it might not be alike those practiced in the authentic routine. Performance augmentation dissimilarities flanked by best and novice performers are expected to be an issue of the quantity of moment devoted to working these techniques (that is, best athletes are possibly to expend additional time on psychological observation (Schmid, 1999).

The seventh phase is where “evaluation” becomes the hub focus of all activities. This is possibly to be in the shape of acquiescence or the examination of presentation. Leading athletes might be capable of talking about their personal outcomes with the trainer owing to their kinesthetic and presentation understanding. The support of a trainer in the process of assessment of a novice might be necessary for the for the most part for precise appraisal. This concluding stage shifts reverse into the game scrutiny stage and is supposed to be straightly linked to the already mentioned reason and goals.

Some see pre-performance routines as beneficial as it seems to help with anxiety and acts like a coping strategy when levels of competition are high. It has been noted that the higher the competition level and the greater the involvement in sport, the greater the prevalence of preperformance routines, regardless of gender. Athletes require confidence together with training and physical conditioning, is necessary to top athletic performance.

Feelings stand to be an integral component of game antagonism; however, if control of emotions is not gained before competition begins; the very emotions and feelings are likely to control the athlete and hold back the show. Through captivating psychological control by applying mental strategies and skills is to aid all performers to a further most favorable condition of willingness for participating in sports. It is significant that the sportsperson senses that she or he has command of himself or herself and the state of affairs to the best possible degree. It is the likelihood which is at hand in sport and which adds to the performer’s emotions of improbability and deficiency of self-management. Such emotions might distract performers’ self-assurance and give way to nervousness. It has been recognized that so as to sense some logic of confidence and to offer a way of emotional command in aggressive circumstances, a number of performers carry out some kind of before-performance exercises.

Preperformance routines help athletes overcome both physical and mental obstacles through psychological placebo. However some may argue that the chance element is present in all life, not just sport. Although preperformance routines may seem to be a positive attraction as it seems to provide predictability, gambling too can have a positive allure for many, well as many other forms of uncertainty and risk. It would seem that not many things in life are predictable apart from the prison routine.

Before performance exercises are likely to bring a constructive endurance charge in definite conditions, like a “coping mechanism” so as to contract the strain to stay alive. Sportspersons start to consider, and desire to deem, that their exacting habit is improving their show. It is almost certainly just performance and self-assurance that makes them do in improved states of outcomes (Skinner, 1998).

Empirical investigate has traced out that in an unmanageable state in which strengthening is non-dependent, people are accustomed to behaving and delusion of self-management, imprecisely deeming that they contain management over the underpinning. It has been a pragmatic observation that before-performance exercises are a sheer training procedure which takes place as an unintentional consequence owing to the fact that underpinning happens to take place chronologically with a reaction; thus, it is stated that the reaction is to rely on the underpinning. Before-performance exercises are consequently deemed as the result of education, apart from the fact that the education has in a logical way has turned to be on the negative track. It is supposed that ceremonious exercises and before-performance attempts sprang from the unintentional link between the reaction and the exterior of a supporter. Besides, it has been practical too in Yale sportspersons that before-performance exercises rely on their previous evidence of achievement or breakdown. Achievement guides toward recurrence of performance since an athlete connects it with the way he or she engage in recreation.

Researchers discussed these preperformance routines as ritual and stated that although, by definition, ritual is not essential to technical performance; anthropologists have offered impressive evidence of the impact of ritual on human affairs, in both the psychological and sociological realms. Preperformance routines are associated with high risk activities, with the risk being expressed in terms of physical danger to the participants or possibly of failure of the activity. In the context of sport ritual preperformance routine behavior is associated with the high-risk activities of pitching and hitting, rather than with the low-risk activity of fielding.

Researchers undertook an investigation with first year students. Here a sequence of possibility established assignments with diverse results and diverse promises of achievement were implemented. The students were given the recommendation of an intuitive practice. Case investigated when the likelihood of achievement was far above the ground, no one employed the intuitive and on one occasion the likelihood of achievement declined and the students employed the intuition more. As Case deliberated the students' conviction in intuitive powers, he came across no relationship between such convictions and exercise of the intuition. It depicted to him that it did not issue if they deemed in the gullible approach or not, the students employed intuition every time they appeared to be anxious. This accomplished for Case that athletes lean to employ credulous approaches when their organization is most in danger, even when they state they do not deem in the efficiency of such techniques. If they actually had trust in their before-performance exercise, they would bring it up despite the consequences. Yet the fact that they only opted for this very approach when they were most nervous signified they were employing before-performance exercised as a method of management. The force to get management in unmanageable circumstances is a attribute of persons exhibiting type A behavior pattern (TABP). A performance prototype said to be common among top sportsperson, and a muscular athletic individuality, which has been explained as a physically powerful recognition with the sportsperson position and a propensity to be very egocentric in physical opposition (Weinberg, 2003).

Empirical evidence has come across that the performers to be more egocentric contain a superior inclination to put into practice game before-performance attempts. Investigation has exposed that TABP is aggravated by an ambitious requirement to uphold individual organization over proceedings. Spirited game is taken to engage pressure and unmanageability, the very kind of condition a type A person might place themselves in. It has been declared that as before-performance attempts are to be taken as a method to decrease nervousness in sports circumstances, it will be predictable that the more egocentric performers, those on the verge of showing more nervousness, will thus be more prove to expand sport-linked before-performance customs This is obvious from investigation where it was observed that the greater the egocentric participation of male and female ice hockey players, the larger the occurrence of sport before-performance attempts.

Although research argues for preperformance routines success in building confidence and helping boost morale they should not be perceived as the only reason for success and think that they will determine success no matter how well you prepare before a game. Research mentions pre-performance rituals and believes functional behaviors such as exercise physiology, biomechanics and sport psychology, represent a more productive use of an athlete's energies than engagement in non functional behaviors, such as those activities that have no demonstrated relationship to performance, as they have been proved through research to consistently enhance performance. Team psychologists and coaches may try to make athletes give preperformance routines up, rationalizing scientific thought; however there is increasing evidence that it makes good sense to keep them.

Several investigators identify before-performance attempts as underprovided because it makes sportspersons consider that they are not in power of their own occasions. Some investigators support a principle to take on a more interior point of management. Point of management is to be explained as considering that an occasion is either in one’s power or out of it. Those who deem interior point of control to be efficient are more expected to consider that an incident takes place as a creation of their own performance and this would hence augment a person’s incentive to carry on an action. The additional half who trust in outside point of command, who see that an affair is dependent on possibility, fortune, or the pressure of other populace will reduce in yearning to persevere in a movement that he or she takes as not capable of manipulating. This dissimilarity in convictions guides towards an analogous distinction in manners, since the people who have faith in inside point of command take themselves as in charge of their own destiny, they will in fact attempt, more than those who consider an external point of command be at play, to emphasize a command of and to carry out performance which improves management over their own selves (Wrisberg, 1992).

One more famous advance to civilizing gaming presentation that comes up to be above all else mental is that of the Inner Game. Inner Game is fundamentally a disagreement between two personalities, which are self one and self two. These are supposed to contain fairly unusual traits . Self 1 is mindful, self-cognizant, and pertains to the aptitude of language. It is the philosophizing personality that weighs, examines and disparages routine and it might be accountable for unsuitable reactions or it might inspire the sportsperson to counter-productive outcomes. Self 2, conversely, is explained as comatose and processor-like, and contracts most efficiently with illustration and space-related knowledge. The self investigation and self-appraisal of a sportsperson while being in a performance is an activity of self 1 and is indicative of the disagreement between the two selves.

Self 1 is likely to articulate itself in the medium of language and, consequently, habitually achieves this management unsuitably. It is not essential to examine why hesitations and doubts are absent from the additionally pertinent illustrative and space-related components of the mission. The Inner Game is aimed at assigning the supply of the two self sets to the utilization in which both are more capable in order that they are likely to function in agreement and consequently create best show. Leisure methods are a good instance of scientific psychology techniques employed as before-performance attempts. Self bound respite aspires to discharge nervousness in all of the body's main power clusters at the same time highlighting sluggish, simple inhalation, and heartening mental picture of pressure springing from the physical structure. When primarily it might obtain ten minutes to labor from end to end the coaching, with some performance, better and better respite is supposed to be attained in a lesser amount of time (Cox, 1994).

PRT (Progressive Relaxation Training) was in the beginning founded by Edmund Jacobson. Edmund Jacobson was an American medical doctor who worked in the 1920's and 1930's. This techniques, however, has been adapted over the past years. PRT is knowledge to sense nervousness in the physical structure and then being trained of letting leave of this nervousness. The PRT process engages three strides. The sportsperson is obliged to be on a rug with passive illumination. The sportsperson is then demanded to stress the first 16 tissue clusters between 5 and 7 seconds. The strain is then freed and the sportsperson calms down for 30 to 45 seconds.

The equivalent practice is tagged along for every tissue cluster for 15 to 20 minutes. Two times on the daily basis, by and by coming to grip to unite tissue clusters unless four are made use of. Ultimately the sportsperson is to be capable of calming down very soon by bringing to mind the feeling and knowledge, even throughout contest itself. One more technique which is parallel to PRT is autogenic preparation. While PRT focuses on leisure single-handedly, autogenic preparation transports in other feelings connected with the condition of leisure, and speaks out for a few kinds of self-regulated hypnosis on the side of the sportsperson. This kind of instruction was expanded in the beginning of 1900's by the German doctor of psychiatry, J.H. Schultz. Sportspersons are instructed in self-leisure, depending on self-proposals and images. This is intended to generate thoughts of heat, weight and power in diverse body components and lastly arrive at a condition of psychological balance (Ferguson, 1990).

Metaphoric entertainment technique, like images, facilitates greatly for a few people and but is hard for others. Metaphoric entertainment engages picturing one’s self in a kind of atmosphere or position where one has gone through the experience of emotions of leisure and relief. This might be a location at home or anywhere particular which one keeps in mind from vacations or early days like tepid seashore with a fresh sea wind, a green ridge, or merely anywhere one feels fine. The more superior the person is to place him or herself in the location from side to side metaphors, the more tranquil she or he is likely to be. With usual performance in envisaging this location devoid of leadership would permit the sportsperson to sense tranquil far more rapidly.

Pre-performance routines are a way of activating the mental state of athletes. They ensure that athletes have enhanced performance. These routines allow athletes to focus their thoughts on a series of signals. This reduces the chance of athletes focusing on negative thoughts or physically performing actions. Research has shown that basketball players during free throw shooting are accurately performing the shot. Preperformance routines have been shown to be helpful in developing concentration and discipline amongst the free throw shooters (Ryan, 2001).

There are many different types of preperformance routines. Sports trainers use a variety of mental, psychological and cognitive principles to help train athletes. Visualization is one type of preperformance routine that helps solve problems amongst athletes. It creates enhanced performance amongst athletes. Building self confidence is a vital component of training an athlete. Imagery has been shown to be effective on the individual level. There are also many types of external preperformance routines like building the spirit of team cooperation and positive criticism. These techniques help change the behavior of athletes and increase their performance.

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